Next Horizon
IT Managed Services

1. Functional Support

Sometimes, all a business needs is a little extra IT support to improve productivity and get ahead of tech-related problems before they become bigger.

We can provide different levels of IT support for your business, depending on your needs and goals.

Our foundational services are designed to help with on and off-premise support.

The Next Horizon team of 40+ pro-actively manages, maintains, & supports your hardware, so you can focus on the daily tasks of running a business with peace of mind.

2. Platform Management

Our team is here to help host and adjust your platform regularly to ensure peak performance. With our platform management solutions, you can get the support you need for everyday needs and processes.

Most enterprise-level businesses have several platforms and operating systems they are managing at a time.

With the help of Next Horizon, you can receive the additional support you need to monitor your systems and respond to changes quickly.

3. Cloud Hosting and Infrastructure

Cloud infrastructure refers to the components needed for everyday cloud computing. This includes:

• Hardware
• Storage Solution
• IT Maintenance
• Network Connectivity.

Next Horizon cloud hosting and infrastructure services ensure your team can easily access websites, applications, and tools through cloud resources.

Instead of traditional servers, there is no on-premise hardware to worry about. That means your team can scale with ease and have more flexibility with your resources. Our IT support ensures your network is running at optimal performance and there’s never any disruption to workplace productivity levels.

4. Managed Disaster Recovery

In today’s digital age, managed disaster recovery services are a necessity. Without one, you risk your business continuity and your customer’s private information. Our disaster recovery solution ensures your IT environment will survive a catastrophic event if one were to ever occur.

With Next Horizon by your side, you can get the reassurance you need for unforeseen business disruptions or financial losses.

We’re here to help you navigate the uncertainty and help you preserve the integrity of your business.

2. Identify personnel roles

If a disaster occurs, someone needs to be in charge to streamline productivity and keep things moving. Your DRP will identify who is responsible for executing the disaster recovery plan. There will also be provisions if an individual is unavailable.

3. Hardware and software inventory

An inventory list will have all of your hardware and software assets listed. This list should also note which software and hardware are critical to the business.

2. Disaster recovery as a service

This means your business operations, software, and hardware are with an off-premise cloud. With disaster recovery as a service, you can rest assured your company can carry on with…

…day-to-day operations, even if your on-premise servers are down.

3. Virtualization

Virtualization is a great tool you can add to your disaster recovery plan to ensure your company is safe during a natural disaster. With this method, your data is located on an offsite virtual machine.

This ensures you can recover quickly if disaster strikes.

1. On-premise recovery

Your in-house IT team sets up a disaster recovery plan for all of your software, hardware, systems, and data.

This requires an IT system for all of the tech your company has.

This also means if one single component fails, your entire system could be at risk of failing.

2. Data recovery and restoration

For hardware and systems that cannot tolerate downtime, you can consider actual parallel computing, data mirroring, or multiple data center synchronization. These are higher-cost data recovery solutions.

The most cost-effective alternative would be to use a cloud backup.

3. Internal recovery

Storing data at multiple facilities can help ensure that if a problem occurs, not all of your data would be at risk. Your company would need to configure your applications to ensure they can all work together cohesively from one data center to another data center.

Of course, this can be a more expensive strategy.

4. Cloud-based

With cloud-based recovery, the cloud hosts and manages all of your vital services and data streams. This ensures you have access to all the information whenever you need it.

Your data will be monitored to detect outages, malware threats, and other cybersecurity errors.

Microsoft Intune:
Threat Protection

One of the biggest benefits to Microsoft Intune is threat protection. With this service, you can protect your data from malware attacks and phishing scams.

Microsoft Intune is a leading provider of workplace technology and security solutions.

It integrates data from Mobile Threat Defense (MTD) partners to assess Conditional Access rules based on device risk. That helps organizations secure their network against attacks.

No one without approval can access corporate databases.

It also provides an in-depth analysis of the device, access patterns, and use to identify any risk in real-time.

Next Horizon is proud to offer this service to our clients!

Microsoft Intune enhances security with data loss prevention technology. This is by detecting sensitive information sent out from mobile devices. That helps protect your company and customers against data breaches and compliance violations.

Microsoft Intune:
Information Protection

Microsoft Intune can protect information stored on devices.

It helps company administrators control identifiable and other sensitive information.

Additionally, providing access to only authorized users will help companies meet compliance requirements. For example, it helps protect PII/customer confidential materials within their network boundaries.

In short, it’s possible to prevent the loss of PII and other sensitive data.

Organizations can also protect data in transit. The ability to secure and encrypt email traffic enables companies to follow industry standards, such as HIPAA and SOX.

The security features built into the service will protect your business against cyberattacks.

Microsoft Intune provides a holistic approach to data protection. It helps organizations to focus on business objectives without worrying about threats. Next Horizon is proud to offer Microsoft Intune and other IT solutions to protect your data.

Microsoft Intune:
Advanced Endpoint Analytics

Identifying who’s on the network isn’t easy for most organizations. And this exposes the organizations to a number of risks, such as unauthorized access.

The best way to know who’s on the network is with Advanced Endpoint Analytics from Microsoft Intune. This service provides a better picture of what devices are using the company networks. And it helps businesses get control over their security policies and procedures.

This feature can help companies save money by reducing the number of security breaches.

It also makes it easier to deploy security policies and procedures within their workforces.

Microsoft Intune can help save money by reducing the risk of data loss or other issues related to unauthorized access on networks.

Microsoft Intune:
Self-Service Portal

One of the more beneficial tools in Microsoft Intune is a self-service portal. This tool allows employees to perform certain tasks on their own computers and devices.

Employees can install or uninstall apps, and check the security status across all Windows PCs and mobile devices.

They can also change device settings remotely.

The ability for an employee to handle certain tasks on their own is beneficial for a company. It can save time and money while giving employees more freedom to use devices the way they want.

The self-service portal gives an employee great flexibility in how they use work computers and mobile devices. This service saves companies both time and money by allowing them to perform certain tasks themselves rather than waiting for IT to do them.

2. Channels

This is where the power of collaboration really comes into Teams. Set up public or private channels for specific topics.

Some businesses also create social channels for people to share their “Pets” or “Food”, while others use channels for specific teams or projects they’re working on.

3. Meetings

You can set up meetings for up to 250 users per meeting session. Video meetings are available, and users can share their screen, raise their hands, and record meetings. These features can be limited to external guest users.

Your calendar tab on Teams lets you view upcoming meetings and syncs directly with your Outlook mail.

4. Calls

Use Teams to make outbound calls from your PC, laptop, or mobile device.

This way, you’re connected no matter where you’re working from.

5. Document Sharing

Use SharePoint with Teams to share files and see edits in real-time. Files can be uploaded to chats or channels not to be lost on servers and, instead, can be accessed, viewed, and downloaded via a browser.

1. Impressive integration with other Microsoft software

As Teams forms part of the Office 365 suite from Microsoft, your business can reap the rewards of all the software.

This includes Outlook for mail, SharePoint, which allows your team to share files internally and externally safely, and much more.

2. Controlled identity & access management

Your team should always be sure that their content and data is managed effectively and never misused. Teams use Azure Active Directory (AD), a built-in solution that manages identities for Office 365. It uses agile risk assessment and smart protection policies to block any threats.

This helps secure your work environment and lets your team do their job worry-free.

• Controlling guests and anonymous users in Teams calls or meetings:

  • Guest users from outside your business can be set to have limited Teams permissions. They will still be able to chat, call, and meet. But their ability to screen share or record will be limited. If a guest is invited to a meeting, you also have the option to let them into the lobby and only allow them into the meeting once your team is ready. You can edit these settings to grant guests less strict access, but having the security embedded upfront is very advantageous.

• Accessing accounts using multi-factor authentication:

  • This is a feature that many tech giants use today. Multi-factor authentication (MFA) is used when you want to log into your Office 365 account. If MFA is enabled, a user must log in with their username and password, and then verify their identity by entering another authentication code. This code can be received via phone call, text, or via an app notification on a mobile device. Two-step verification is vital for ensuring all files are secure and only accessed by your authorized employees.

4. Compliance management using the Compliance Center

Many companies using Microsoft Teams don’t know about the Microsoft 365 Compliance Center. Microsoft Compliance Manager acts as a service to businesses for their compliance requirements with ease. Messages, chats, and shared files can be audited so that you and your IT department have peace of mind that all files are virus-free and safe for any employee to access.

Organizations are able to supervise content being shared through Microsoft Teams using keywords.

5. Collaborate with Confidence

In a world of virtual work, communication is the key to your organization’s success. It’s time to use the right messaging tools to save your team time, keep your business compliant, and protect everyone from any potential cyber threats.

Learn more about Next Horizon and how our team can help advance your communication and file sharing with Microsoft Teams.

1. Identity and Access Management

Identity and access management systems ensure that the right individuals in an organization can access sensitive data. It’s one way of boosting the organization’s security and productivity of staff members.

To prevent unauthorized access to Exchange Online mailboxes, an organization can enable multi-factor authentication for a certain group of users who receive critical information, like admins and accountants.

When enabled, users will need more than just their username and password to access their accounts. After entering the correct password, they’ll get prompted to enter a code sent to them via a phone call, text, or app notification. Only then can they access their account.

2. Threat Protection

The messaging solution features an email filtering system known as Advanced Threat Protection or ATP. ATP shields all Microsoft Exchange Online mailboxes from spam and malware threats.

ATP works as an additional layer of protection to reduce data breaches that can cost organizations millions of dollars. It comes with a Safe Links feature that blocks malicious URLs in emails and documents sent by attackers in real-time.

Another impressive feature of ATP is Safe Attachments. It scans and quarantines malicious attachments, thus protecting users against malware and viruses. It employs machine learning and real-time behavioral malware analysis to identify suspicious content.

Besides that, the email filtering system can trace down malicious URLs and create an in-depth report. Therefore, users can learn about the nature of cyberattacks.

3. Information Protection

Employees exchange sensitive documents like legal contracts, competition analysis, patent information, and others, via email and collaboration tools daily.

Because they can access their email from virtually anywhere, their mailboxes have turned into depositories with endless lists of potentially sensitive data.

If such information gets compromised, enterprises can lose lots of revenue and customers. Therefore, there’s a need for an effective information protection system to prevent such scenarios.

In Exchange Online, the Data Loss Prevention (DLP) feature will protect all your sensitive data. Administrators can block the transfer of the information or enable DLP policies to alert users when they share such kinds of details.

4. Compliance Management

Over the years, the government has formulated a set of regulations around corporate email. In case of litigation, organizations are expected to preserve emails and other relevant details. They may have to save all the messages associated with certain persons or articles.

With the help of Microsoft Exchange Online, organizations can adhere to these regulations. It makes that possible through features such as Archive Mailboxes and litigation holds.

Archive Mailboxes let users of Office 365 control their data by offering them extra email storage. Users can then store and access their sensitive emails in an archive mailbox using Outlook. The role of the archived mailboxes is to act like a permanent storage location where you can retrieve important information anytime.

The litigation hold helps in preserving email content for compliance and Electronic Discovery. Electronic Discovery or eDiscovery means that the government can search your mailbox content for relevant communication in an event of a lawsuit.

3. Information Protection

In an organization, employees often share information with individuals inside and outside the enterprise. As a result, content never stays behind a firewall. It’s constantly roaming across devices, networks, and collaboration tools.

As it roams, it’s crucial to ensure the information remains protected throughout. To protect sensitive information, SharePoint and OneDrive come with several unique capabilities. The first one is Sensitivity Labels from Microsoft Information Protection (MIP).

The labels help users classify and protect sensitive documents and files. Once enabled, SharePoint and OneDrive end-users will see the Sensitivity button on the ribbon. As such, they can label the documents and files with relevant tags. Through this feature, the cloud-based solution can process the information on encrypted files and documents via a sensitive label.

Sensitivity Labels include an interesting feature called Auto Labelling. It eliminates the need for the organization to train end-users on label classification. The feature allows organizations to label files automatically in SharePoint and OneDrive. This way, end-users can focus more on increasing their productivity.

4. Compliance Management

Microsoft works to help organizations and their users meet compliance regulations like GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) and others. In on-premise SharePoint servers and OneDrive users enjoy control over their data.

It informs them what kind of data is held, its location, and how it’s being used. In OneDrive, administrators and end-users have control over their data. Microsoft only acts as the custodian of the stored information, but they can’t alter or share the information.

Additionally, admins and users retain control of their accounts and contact information. With the help of in-product functionality, they can alter the information.

With that said, OneDrive meets the following standard compliance regulations:

• ISO 27001
• HIPAA BAA
• EU MODEL
• CLAUSES
• FERPA SEC 17 a-4 (f)

1. Identity and Access Management

Identity and access management, also known as IAM, is a crucial component of switching to Office 365. To clarify, the word “identity” here refers to the people within your company and the roles and job titles they fill.

The identity of employees is crucial to accessing the information on the Office 365 Cloud solution because it ensures the right people have full access to appropriate information.

Access management pertains to previously authenticated (through the use of the login process, also known as identity) authorized users gaining access to the materials they need. When using Office 365, the administrator (you) will not have to log in to provide them with that access. You’ll create and fully manage user accounts within the Office 365 solution.

2. Threat Protection

Equipped with state-of-the-art threat Microsoft 365 Defender protection, Office 365 is an effective place to secure company data, devices, team identities, and internal and external emails. When you work in the cloud with 365, your business will have full access to antiphishing technology, antimalware, and antispam protection.

Microsoft 365 Defender will detect and prevent attacks on every piece of information that you store within your Office 365 solution. Microsoft Defender is always on the hunt for threats, and the second that something suspicious is detected, the system will update your Office 365 dashboard with an alert and instructions on how to proceed.

The most critical component of bringing your business communication and tasks online is security. Microsoft 365 wholly understands that.

3. Information Protection

Just as important as overall security and antispyware technology is information protection. If your cloud-based solution does not have proper information protection, there is absolutely no point in using it, especially for business purposes.

Microsoft 365 Information Protection goes to the extreme to ensure that your data stays protected. Data loss can be a massive hit for companies of any size.

Information Protection helps preserve data and protect from environmental threats across every Microsoft app, including Outlook, Excel, and PowerPoint.

4. Security Management

When you choose the Business Premium subscription with Microsoft 365, you’re choosing exceptional security management.

Office 365 Advanced Threat protection is a security beast, taking charge of all of your precious data and keeping it safe when stored in the cloud.

From ransomware to harmful links, there are zero security threats that Advanced Threat doesn’t pick up. Also, it’s easy for business owners to manage and understand without prior cloud solution security experience. When choosing your plan, make sure that it comes with the level of security you require.

5. Compliance Management

Owning, running, or managing a business is no easy feat. Handling everything from payroll, data management, and company compliance can become incredibly overwhelming. The feeling of having too much to do increases the desire for organized access to data with enhanced security is where cloud-based solutions like Office 365 come into play.

You want to organize your company’s compliance efforts all in one place, and Office 365 is the perfect place to do so. Risk management is essential to keeping business running smoothly, and your compliance dashboard will let you know exactly where you are regarding your risk level.

You’ll find various tools that help you meet regulatory, organizational, and legal requirements.

You can easily access the compliance manager through the settings tab on your Office 365 dashboard. It’s genuinely one of the best aspects of Office 365.